Nadia Petrova floors Alize Cornet to book a quarterfinal spot at 2011 Internationaux de Strasbourg
Russian tennis star Nadia Petrova put up another brilliant show on the red clay courts of Strasbourg as she came back from a set deficit to floor Frenchwoman Alize Cornet on Wednesday. With her win the 28-year-old has also booked
a place in the last eight of $220,000 International tennis event.
Petrova made a very shaky start to the match and suffered a serve break early in the opening set. She miss timed her shots on a number of occasions and soon found herself trailing the game score by 4-1. Cornet took complete advantage
of her opponent’s weak serve and displayed top quality tennis to ensure her strong position in the match. She held on to her serve games without any trouble as she claimed the set 6-2.
Cornet started the second set on a positive note as well but as the match progressed, her game play faded away as she failed to perform to her potential. Petrova on the other hand raised the level of her game and made a strong
come back in the set breaking her opponent at crucial situations. The Russian smashed a lovely forehand winner down the line to setup three set points for herself and then converted the very first one to level the set score 1-1.
The third set started on a very positive note as both players exchanged breaks of serve. Petrova kept focus on her own game and created match-winning opportunities. Although Cornet made the first serve break of the set, Petrova
showed amazing character to break straight back. She then held on to her serve games to seal the battle that lasted for more than one hour and 42 minutes.
Despite making quite a few double faults early in the match, Petrova managed to find her game just at the right time. She reached an impressive 63 percent first serve conversion and also won 59 percent of the points on serve return
to put her opponent under extreme pressure. However the most exciting aspect of her game was her strong baseline play. Te Russian successfully exploited the weaknesses in her opponent’s game and saved certain break points against her with her strong defensive
strategy.
Cornet made a bright start to the match but lost the plot when it most mattered. She wasted a few valuable break chances, which played a big part in deciding the outcome of the match.
In the semi-final, Petrova will take on Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova who defeated Mathilde Johansson 6-4, 6-2 to reach her second quarterfinal here at Strasbourg. Both players are equally matched and an exciting encounter is expected.
The Slovakian will be the favourite for this clash as she defeated Petrova in their previous meeting at Strasbourg back in 2000. However, one cannot write off Petrova’s chances either.
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